Flashbacks And Dissociation Related To Complex Trauma

[In Exile]

I find it really hard to be consistent. I try meditation, but find it hard to do it daily. I think that I need to change my goals from being perfect to at least be working on my issues.

I think I need to figure out my goals here in recovery.

Tonight, I just came home again from work and spaced out on the net. Before I knew it, it was already 1:30. I just put everything out of my mind and don't think about it. It just seems to be either panic or disassociation.

 

[KwanYingirl]

I dissociate instantly if I have an intrusive memory. It's like turning a switch on. Flashbacks for me are visceral. My body and mind relive an event and the psychic pain is unbearable. I find myself saying "it's not me" because I am split. Dissociating takes me out of the pain. A vacation from it. I have memory distortions after a flashback. I just ride it out. Try to get movement, a change of scenery. Mindful breathing. Flashbacks are an event and dissociation is my bodies response to it. I read affirmations, practice yoga, meditate as best I can and when all else fails, well I just breathe. My friends call me Forgetful Jones . When the children were young I'd forget having said I'd babysit for someone. They all knew to call me before they came to remind me. I experience dissociation as a place of calm.

 

[Hope4Now]

Flashbacks are an event and dissociation is my bodies response to it.

Yes! This is a really helpful sentence to remember. I get all mixed up in the muck of event/memory/dissociation/emotion etc.

My friends call me Forgetful Jones .

Yes...I used to have a bad memory...now it's way worse. Am forgetting things all the time...important things...Have to put sticky notes up all over the place and carry a to-do list and look at it a lot. I hate this. Makes me feel very out-of-control. Like I can't depend on myself anymore.

 

[In Exile]

Part of forgetfulness is simply getting to be a little older. I'm 12 years older than my wife, when we met, I was in my early 40s, she was in her early 30s. She would give me all sorts of hard times for forgetting things. Now she does so regularly herself. I'd give her a harder time, but I keep forgetting. :p

@KwanYingirl,

I also like what you said. It's good to remember that.